Re: Lakers stronger, while C's wait longer

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Amy Beauregard wrote:

> Lakers about to trade for Kukoc and the Pistons about
> to get Iverson, while we are trading for Del Negro? I
> thought he was a stiff 10 years ago. Why do we have to
> trade Fortson? IF you want him, keep him, otherwise
> let him go. You don't have to get something back. Stop
> saving face. I certainly hope that it is a coincidence
> that Fortson was offered $40 mil by Pitino and Wahad
> is about to sign for that amount. I really don't want
> another anchor hanging from the Celtics' ship for
> years to come. I also hope Pot isn't going anywhere.
> He's all we've got

    It is scary to think Boston could go into next season with their
biggest player being Antoine Walker at 245 pounds. There are 5-8 NFL
running backs that weigh more than Battie, EuroBattie or McCarty. The
Denver Post rumor must be nutty. I'm quite sure of this.

    I would think that Potapenko has at least the trade value of a Rick
Robey. Relatively speaking, quality shooting guards are a dime-a-dozen
compared to serviceable centers. Boston should demand a Dennis Johnson
or Danny Ainge caliber guy in return and for goodness sakes stop
dangling our first round picks (something Pitino has confirmed he has
been doing with Tariq and Jermaine, so this isn't merely unfounded
speculation).

    As for Fortson, at best he will need a measly 24 minutes per game in
order to be a top-5 NBA rebounder. Of course Retardino would and will
argue that Fortson's three mostly non-shooting fouls per game offset
this level of production on the boards. Or stress that he can't
effectively play the point on the fullcourt monkey outbreak.

   At worst Fortson can teach Moiso and Blount the importance of boxing
out during training camp and remind them that their athleticism and size
isn't enough to assure success in the NBA. On the other hand, Battie was
coming on very strong late in the strike-shortened season and he might
have been a much more confident and productive player by now if only
Fortson hadn't come back to haunt and humiliate him again, after
previously turning him into "El Busto" during their stay together in
Denver. I am sure Batgirl will be happy to finally see Fortson leave.

    I can easily live with losing Fortson for nothing (as opposed to
adding a contract to save face). My view is that dumping Fortson is a
necessary sacrifice in order to prove conclusively that Pitino's
headless chicken defense is the joke of the NBA. There hopefully won't
be any more excuses left after this one. Last season Fortson played a
little over a quarter per game in the small portion of the season when
he was healthy, yet we buy into the party line that there is some sort
of correlation between Fortson's purportedly weak interior defense and
the 470FG% shooting that the Pitino system allowed last year.

    How many NBA teams are interested in Fortson right now? How many are
interested in Tariq? Enough said.

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